The impersonal form is used when the subject in sentences is not specified. It corresponds to the English ONE (one drinks very good coffee in Italy), YOU (you drink very good coffee in Italy), THEY meaning a number of unspecified people (they drink very good coffee in Italy).

The impersonal form is made by using the pronoun siand by conjugating the verb in the third person (esempio: In Italia, si beve un buon caffé).

Qualche altro esempio:

In Italia..

si mangia bene

si vive bene

si parla italiano

Viaggiando..

si cresce

si cambia opinione sulla vita

si diventa più maturi

The impersonal form is often used with the modal verbs dovere and potere indicating what must or mustn’t be done or what can or cannot be done.

A scuola…

si deve studiare

non si può usare il cellulare

si deve essere puntali

In ufficio..

si deve arrivare in orario

non si può mangiare davanti al pc

non si può fumare

ATTENZIONE:

When si is used with a reflexive verb, the reflexive or reciprocal pronoun is ci, not si; the resulting form is thus ci si:

I often happened to be asked by my students what is the actual difference between the verbs ESSERE and STARE, as they both can be translated into one single verb in many other languages (French, English, German, Polish…), that is to say TO BE.

Let’s start from clarifying that the Italian translation of ‘TO BE’ is truly ESSERE and that STARE is used in the place of ESSERE just in some idiomatic expressions.

In many expressions stareand essere are interchangeable. There is a subtle difference between them though. ESSERE would rather state a quality or being statement while STARE would rather indicate a a voluntariness in the action described.